Current technology for creating a digital radiological image of a patient's teeth utilizes a sensor card which is configured to be sensitive to x-rays and electronically connected to a computer thence to a video monitor and/or a printer. The sensor card is placed in the patient's mouth behind the area to be x-rayed. An x-ray head is then aimed at the teeth in question. The x-ray head is then activated, the radiation going through the teeth and onto the sensor card. The sensor card sends the image created to a computer. The computer then digitizes the image. Once it is digitized, it can then be sent to a printer for the production of a hard copy "picture". Or, it can be sent to a video monitor. Because the image is digitized, it can be further enhanced for greater clarity. It can be zoomed in or out, inverted, contrasted with different intensities, or color switched, black to white, and white to black.
Advantages of digital radiology over film radiology are: (1) The fact that a darkroom is not needed for hard copy production. (2) The image is rapidly produced on a video screen, saving the operator time. (3) It has the ability to send the image via E-mail or the internet to insurance companies or other practitioners for diagnosis and consultation due to the fact that the image is digitized. (4) It uses an extremely small dosage of radiation. (5) Patients can see problems on a picture on hard copy paper or a monitor much more readily than on a small and negative film radiograph, making case presentations much more understandable.
The disadvantages of digital radiological imaging are the following: (1) The pictures which appear on the video screen are quite fuzzy and not of clear quality. (2) The hard copy produced is also of poor quality. It is difficult for the practitioner to see much detail. Film radiographs are far superior in quality and resolution. (3) Digital radiological imaging is advantageous for only one or two films. It is not possible to take a full set of radiographs, eighteen to twenty-two films, (or even four bite-wing films) and view them clearly on a video monitor. Each individual radiograph is too small when all are viewed as a whole, considering the comparatively poor quality of video imaging. It is very difficult to be constantly zooming in and out to different individual pictures. When a dentist has a full set of "film" radiographs in front of him, his eyes can be constantly scanning from film to film to contrast and compare different areas, which greatly aids him in the diagnosis. This just cannot be done when a full set of radiographs is on a video screen. (4) Ergonomically, the hard copies produced on the printer are extremely difficult to view and diagnose, when in groups of eighteen to twenty-two, and to store. Viewing the pictures is like viewing a stack of photographs. The bigger the stack gets, the more awkward the handling. Storing the hard copies in the patients' charts, which must be done in case the computer hard disk breaks down or is destroyed, becomes cumbersome over time, because the stack of hard copies gets thicker and more cluttered. (5) While, at the writing of this patent, the inventor realizes that the costs of technology usually gets less expensive as time goes on, the current digital radiological technology is electronically complex and prohibitively expensive, and is simply out of reach for a majority of practitioners. (6) The sensor card, which goes into the patient's mouth, is an extremely fragile and costly piece of equipment which cannot be sterilized or it would be destroyed. It must be covered by a small baggie every time it is used to prevent transmission of pathogens from patient to patient. This technique is of questionable safety, considering pathogens can be transferred from baggie to baggie as they are changed. Because it is a piece of electronic equipment, it cannot be bent to conform to the patient's mouth, as can a piece of film. This may cause great discomfort to the patient.